Demonstrations and Protests

The demand for radical change in law enforcement raises questions about what a transformation of police authority, power, and accountability would mean for the use of digital technologies in policing. 

The movement against anti-Black racism has made reparations an important element of the conversation on race relations, both in the United States and in Europe. Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., for example, sold slaves it owned to plantations in Louisiana in 1838, and the founders of Brown University, established in 1764, were involved in the slave trade. Both Georgetown and Brown, as well as other U.S. institutions of higher-learning, established funds or sought to raise money for various initiatives to address their role in profiting from slavery. Identifying those institutions that profited or benefited from slavery is an important first step in then calling for these institutions to provide reparations. But, often in the United States those institutions and companies still in existence that participated in slavery are identified after self-led, internal initiatives, as was the case for Georgetown and Brown. In the United Kingdom, identifying beneficiaries of slavery may be easier, thanks to Legacies of British Slave-ownership project at University College London. When it abolished slavery throughout the British empire in 1833 (after abolishing the slave trade in 1807), the British government paid compensation to the owners of the freed slaves. Records of the amounts paid and to which companies, individuals, and institutions have survived and are now accessible.  Two of those beneficiaries were the insurance giant Lloyd's of London and the brewer Greene King, identified by university researchers. Their link to profits from slavery were via their founders and early leaders. Both companies have announced initiatives to address their role in slavery and public scrutiny and public opinion may drive other such companies to follow suite. Neither Lloyd's nor Greene King has announced the details or the cost. However, it appears that reparations will involve affirmative action and support for certain non-governmental organization working for racial equality. Though the ostensible beneficiaries of these programs will be in United Kingdom, the victims were often slaves owned thousands of miles away on estates and plantations in British colonies in the Caribbean. Why not privately funded development initiatives in Dominica, Montserrat, and St. Kitts, for example, from Lloyd’s and Greene King? With added public scrutiny and pressure, it is likely that links to slavery of more and more companies and institutions will come to light. These companies will take the first steps toward addressing the ill-gotten wealth from which they benefited. In making amends, they should not lose sight of who suffered from slavery and colonialism. In the United States, they are primarily Black Americans and Native Americans. In the United Kingdom, and elsewhere in Europe, they consist of people—including those who are descendants of slaves—in post-colonial states, many of which still suffer from their calamitous experience with European colonialism.

The U.S. protests following the police killing of George Floyd have spurred solidarity among many Africans, who have expressed widespread outrage against police brutality.

The murder of George Floyd by a policeman and the ensuing protests against racism and police brutality in the United States have ignited similar protests in Europe. Large crowds, especially in the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium, are demanding public acknowledgment of the links among slavery, European colonialism, and contemporary racism. European protesters, perhaps in solidarity with Americans, have borrowed anti-police rhetoric. But, with the exception of the French, by and large, European protestors tie racial abuse in their own countries not so much to the police but to the persistence of the glorification of colonialism or, at best, a collective amnesia about its effects. In the United States, Black Lives Matter protestors are calling for the removal of statues of Confederate leaders, and many have since been removed. In Europe, protestors are calling for the removal of statues glorifying men made famous or rich by the slave trade and colonialism. In Belgium, statues of King Leopold II, whose personal, brutal rule of Congo may have caused the deaths of up to half of the territory’s population, are being defaced, and some have been removed. In the United Kingdom, protestors pulled down a statue of Edward Colston, (1636–1721), an official of the Royal Africa Company that transported an estimated 84,000 Africans to slavery in the Caribbean and the mainland British colonies, perhaps 20,000 of whom died in the notorious “Middle Passage.” His extensive, local philanthropy was built on the profits of the slave trade. A statue of Winston S. Churchill opposite the Houses of Parliament was vandalized because of his advocacy of the empire and colonialism, and his personal racism. There are calls in the United Kingdom for the erasure of Cecil Rhodes’s name from public institutions. Student-led protests, dubbed #RhodesMustFall, led to the removal of his statue in 2015 at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. However, there is probably greater public support for the removal of reminders of slavery in the United States than there is in Europe with respect to colonialism. Already in the United Kingdom, there has been a backlash against attacks on national heroes such as Winston Churchill. Though Britain, France, and the other European states abolished slavery in the nineteenth century, they nevertheless carved up much of the (non-white) world among themselves. In Europe as in America, racism often provided the intellectual justification for colonial rule and white supremacy, and accounted for their popularity among the general public. Reflecting little understanding of Charles Darwin and “natural selection,” the common presumption was that each "race," mostly defined by skin color and other obvious physical characteristics, had an objective, fundamental "character," and there was a "natural" hierarchy with whites at the top, blacks, at the bottom, and "browns" (mostly in Britain’s Indian Empire) in between. America is now attempting to come to terms with how slavery and racial segregation remains central to the Black experience today. In a similar vein, European colonialism is central to understanding African countries, almost all of which were former European colonies. American legal emancipation in 1865 and the ending of legal segregation a century later did not erase the lasting damage they caused. African independence after 1960 has not undone the consequences of colonialism. As influential Nigerian academic Peter Ekeh wrote, “Our post-colonial present has been fashioned by our colonial past.” The anti-colonial dimension in the European demonstrations ignited by George Floyd are a welcome acknowledgement of that reality.

Human rights abuses at home undermine U.S. global leadership.

Amid protests against racial injustice, can President Trump deploy the military to bring “law and order” to American streets?

A U.S. police officer’s killing of George Floyd has sparked protests around the world against racial injustice and police brutality.

The U.S. government’s response to anti-racism protests risks causing lasting damage to American credibility and influence in protecting minorities and oppressed groups worldwide.

The sickening murder of George Floyd, and the laudable fact that the press in the United States is free to report it and to tell the story of the protests sweeping the nation, has again exposed just how much injustice persists in the United States. Some have concluded that this reality should render the United States silent on human rights abuses abroad. Without our own house in order, this argument posits, we have no standing to decry abuses elsewhere. The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, Brian Nichols, gave powerful expression to a very different point of view in a statement he released on June 1. He acknowledged that he represents a country still working to realize its ideals, which aspires to be better for all of its citizens. Holding fast to that aspiration, he suggests, also compels the United States to speak out against injustice abroad—not from a position of supposed superiority, but in service of a mission to “meet the ideals of our founding.” To ignore human rights abuses, such as the abductions and assaults of political opponents and peaceful protesters that have occurred in Zimbabwe, would render America complicit in even more injustice. Ambassador Nichols’s statement models an American human rights diplomacy that rises above partisan takes about swagger or apologism. Confidence and pride and clarity of purpose can all coexist with humility. Representatives of the United States can acknowledge that our society is not free from oppression without suggesting that oppression is acceptable anywhere. They can acknowledge all of the truths of our own experience, even the ugly ones, without abandoning our principles or embracing a purely transactional diplomacy grounded in the most narrow idea of self-interest. They can exercise American leadership not grounded in a façade of perfection, but in a steadfast belief that our society is a partner to others around the world in the pursuit of justice and dignity for all people. Waging that struggle with humility and clarity and honesty will make for not just a stronger America, but stronger, more resilient, and more stable American partners.

Beijing’s new national security legislation could effectively end Hong Kong’s promised semiautonomy.

An unprecedented financial and political crisis has sparked mass protests in Lebanon, but a nonresponsive government and the coronavirus pandemic could stand in the way of demonstrators’ demands.

Gender-based killings in Mexico have sparked mass protests, with activists blaming the government for an anemic response.

The eulogies for Egypt’s fourth president focused on his downfall, but history will remember his overlooked accomplishments while in office.